James L Colwell

James Lee Colwell, a resident of the Frasier retirement community in Boulder, died on December 11, 2024, after a long illness. He was 98.

Jim was born on August 31, 1926, in Brush, Colorado, the son of Francis J. Colwell, a rancher and farmer, and Alice Bleasdale Colwell, a teacher. He grew up on the family’s ranch northeast of Brush, on land homesteaded by his parents. The family raised cattle and turkeys, among other livestock, and Jim helped harvest sugar beets.

Jim’s academic career began at the two-room Colwell School, named for his grandfather, Charles I. Colwell, a pioneer rancher and political figure in Morgan County, Colorado. Jim graduated with honors from Brush High School with the class of 1945, a year late, after dropping out of school to work as a civilian employee at Hill Field in Utah. At 17, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces as a pre-aviation cadet, but the Second World War ended before he began pilot training. 

 After being discharged from the Army, Jim returned to Colorado. He studied agronomy at Colorado A & M University in Fort Collins, then transferred to the University of Denver, where he edited the yearbook and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1948. Following graduation, he taught high school in Snyder and Sterling, Colorado. During the summers, he attended Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, earning a master’s degree and a lifetime Colorado teacher’s certificate in 1951. The next year, he began work as a civilian educator for the United States Air Force in Japan, first in Fukuoka, then in Tokyo. 

 Jim’s goal, however, was to earn a Ph.D. and pursue a university career. In 1956, he left Japan for Europe to study other languages in preparation for graduate school: French at the Sorbonne in Paris and then German at the University of Heidelberg. In Heidelberg he met Claudia Alsleben, a fellow graduate student and native of Zeitz, Germany. They were engaged before he returned to the United States, after Jim was admitted to the doctoral program in American Studies at Yale University, where Claudia also eventually studied. Jim and Claudia were married on December 27, 1957, in Göttingen, Germany, and went on to have two children, John (1960) and Alice (1962). 

 After earning his Ph.D. from Yale in 1961, Jim returned to Heidelberg with his family to work as an administrator for the European Division of the University of Maryland, which operated educational programs for American service members and their families. In 1965 the family came to Boulder, where Jim served as the director of the Office of International Education at the University of Colorado and held a faculty appointment in the English Department. In 1972 Jim became the founding dean of the College of Arts and Education at the newly established University of Texas of the Permian Basin (UTPB) in Odessa. Upon stepping down from the deanship, after a serious illness, he held an endowed professorship in the humanities. He had a wide range of academic interests in American literature and history, including the writings of Mark Twain, the history of American wheat, and the American experience in Berlin during the Weimar Republic. He was a much-admired teacher.

 Alongside his academic career, Jim also had a long and distinguished career in the United States Air Force Reserve. He organized and commanded intelligence detachments and served in command roles at the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Air University Command. He was called to active duty to participate in Operation Homecoming, debriefing American prisoners of war on their release from Vietnam. He retired with the rank of brigadier general and was awarded the Legion of Merit.

 On retirement in 1988, Jim and Claudia returned to Boulder, residing on Gordon Drive in south Boulder. They enjoyed traveling and the outdoors. Jim liked planting trees and keeping a vegetable garden, and he was known for the excellent compost he carefully tended and happily shared. He sometimes remarked that he was born with a shovel in his hand. Claudia died on November 18, 2019. She and Jim were married more than 61 years, and Jim credited her for his personal happiness and professional success.

 In 2021, Jim moved to the Frasier retirement community. There he met artist Sandra (Sandy) Bierman, the companion of his last years. He continued his longtime membership in the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Boulder, helping to organize poetry services and teach the history of the denomination. Gregarious and a good storyteller, he cut a recognizable figure in a cowboy hat (either straw or Stetson). He will be remembered for his intellect, his integrity, and his sense of humor.

 Jim is survived by his children and their spouses, John (Tambra Leonard) and Alice (David Dobbs); three grandchildren (Nicholas, Olliver, and James); his sister-in-law Brigitte Alsleben and her husband, Ronald Cruickshank, and his brother-in-law, Bernd Manegold; as well as several nieces and nephews. His three siblings (Millicent McNaughton, Olive Bridges, and Joseph Colwell) preceded him in death. Jim’s children thank Sandy Bierman, Margaret (Marky) Lloyd, Leslie Sugianto, Jessica Davis, the Frasier Summit Care staff, and the staff of Dignity Hospice for their kind care of Jim. 

Donations in Jim’s memory may be made to the Anchor Center for Blind Children, 2550 Roslyn St., Denver, CO  80238, https://anchorcenter.org/, or using the link below or to Meals on Wheels of Boulder, 3701 Canfield St., Boulder, CO  80301, https://mowboulder.org/, or using the link below, or to a local charity of the donor’s choice. 

A memorial service is planned.